Ananda de Alwis in motor racing for 48 years

S M Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Corr.

Participating in the same highly competitive motor racing event for forty eight (48) successive years, yes I repeat 48 years will not have its parallel not only in Sri Lanka but also in the world.

This is a record which is held by retired planter and motor racing driver 73-year-old Ananda de Alwis who now lives in retirement from professional life in his Estate in Nittambuwa but certainly not from motor racing.

When de Alwis drove at the 77th Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb organized by the Ceylon Motor Sports Clon on April 10 at Blackpool, he was doing it for the 48th time and had improved on his own record which was 47 last year.

No hill climber had achieved this feat of driving at the same racing event for 48 successive years. Even if he has done it in any other part of the world, he could not have done it for 48 years in succession. There are other factors which could affect it like illness, official commitments and the fitness of the machine used.

But these were no barrier for de Alwis. He first participated at the Mahagastota Hill Climb as a young trainee planter in 1963 in an Austin 7 and he was thrilled with the speed and the skills with which he negotiated the steep climb and the corners.

He made up his mind to participate in this event every year which he did faithfully despite his busy schedules as a planter, manager, consultant.

Even when abroad he made it a point to come back in the island to participate in this hill climb. Health and fitness was no problem for him, as a planter he had to walk around the tea fields, to ensure that the fields are maintained well and the plucking of two leaves and a bud is done correctly. On retirement, in order to keep fit, he walks for one hour in the morning and this has kept illness away from him.

Another possible record is that de Alwis has been using the 1978 model of Ford Maxico in all the races for the past 32 years. It was a highly competitive machine when it was brought into the island in 1978 but it has no class in keeping with its power and as a result it has run in the higher class with the latest high powered Hondas and Nissans.

But for de Alwis participation is more important than winning which he does for the love of the sport which he has been doing for the past 51 years.

De Alwis has completed 48 years of participation at Mahagastota but his actual participation dates back to 1961 when he and his brother Chandra de Alwis ran at the Katukurunda races in their fathers Austin 7 which is a vintage vehicle now.

Thus he has totted up 51 years in competitive motor racing which may another record and is likely to get into Guiness Book of Records.

De Alwis was once a member of the Caltex Racing team and has run at every racing track in Sri Lanka whether it was gravel, dirt, road, or tarmac which includes Foxhill, Gajaba, Minneriya, Pannala (both gravel and tarmac), Talduwa, Wace Park, Kotmale, Mahagastota, Nuwara Eliya Lake Circuit, Kandy Lake Circuit, Eliyakande, Karundapona, Kurunegala and the now forgotten Hantane Hill Climb in the early sixties. Many people do not know there was once a hill climb at Hantane in Kandy.

The start is near the Kandy Hospital and the roads winds up through the Hantane Estate to the top near the Manager's bungalow.

The only track where he has done run is St. James at Hali Ela which was first held in 1954 and a couple of times in the last decade before it took a place in the limbo of the past.